Category Archives: Media

“According to a report prepared by CPCB in March last year, the cities of Varanasi and Faridabad are the most polluted in winters, with the air quality index regularly showing the severely polluted warning sign. Delhi is at number three, as per the report.

Delhi’s air quality has suffered more in the first two weeks of August as compared to the same time last year, data collated by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shows. Moreover, Delhi is the second most polluted city among the neighbouring ones including Gurgaon, Faridabad, Agra and Ghaziabad.

However, Ghaziabad, where air quality monitoring was started only this year, is the most polluted with an average air quality of 126.7 as compared to Delhi’s 112.

Delhi and surrounding areas see the best air quality in the months of July and August because of the rain…” The Indian Express. Read the full article on delhiair.org.

Share this:

Like this:

Posted onJune 3, 2017|Comments Off on India, Once a Coal Goliath, Is Fast Turning Green: The New York Times

“Just a few years ago, the world watched nervously as India went on a building spree of coal-fired power plants, more than doubling its capacity and claiming that more were needed. Coal output, officials said, would almost triple, to 1.5 billion tons, by 2020.

India’s plans were cited by American critics of the Paris climate accord as proof of the futility of advanced nations trying to limit their carbon output. But now, even as President Trump pulls the United States out of the pact, India has undergone an astonishing turnaround, driven in great part by a steep fall in the cost of solar power.

Experts now say that India not only has no need of any new coal-fired plants for at least a decade, given that existing plants are running below 60 percent of capacity, but that after that it could rely on renewable sources for all its additional power needs.

Rather than building coal-fired plants, it is now canceling many in the early planning stages. And this month, the government lowered its annual production target for coal to 600 million tons from 660 million.

The sharp reversal, welcome news to world leaders trying to avert the potentially deadly effects of global warming, is a reflection both of the changing economics of renewable energy and a growing environmental consciousness in a country with some of the worst air pollution in the world.

What India does matters, because it is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China and the United States. And its energy needs are staggering — nearly one-quarter of its population has no electricity and many others get it only intermittently.

With India’s power needs expected to grow substantially as its economy continues to expand, its energy use will heavily influence the world’s chances of containing the greenhouse gases that scientists believe are driving global warming.

Much attention at the time of the signing of the Paris agreement was focused on the role President Barack Obama played in pushing India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, to sign. In doing so, Mr. Modi committed India to achieving 40 percent of its electricity capacity from nonfossil-fuel sources by 2030…” The New York Times. Read the full article on Delhiair.org

Posted onApril 3, 2017|Comments Off on This is how much air pollution we breathe every day in Britain’s cities: The Independent

“Apart from the occasional blast of fumes so strong it left an acrid, industrial taste for a few fleeting seconds, there was little to suggest there was anything unusual about the air.

But, as crowds of people made their way to work on London Bridge on a breezy spring morning, they passed through clouds of exhaust fumes that could eventually make them one of the tens of thousands of people whose lives are brought to a premature end by air pollution every year in the UK.

If only there was a way to make them see the invisible poison all around them, there might be a greater demand for something to be done.

The sensor in the camera took seven minutes to cool down to its operating temperature of minus 176 degrees Celsius. The FLIR GF343 infrared camera is designed to detect leaks of carbon dioxide, mainly in industrial processes.

However, as exhaust fumes are rich in carbon dioxide as well as pollutants harmful to human health, such as fine particles, ozone and nitrogen oxides, the camera can effectively render the invisible visible…” The Independent. Read the full article on delhiair.org.